Car wheel



H. R. KEITHLEY.

CAR WHEEL- APPLICATION EILED FEB. 18. I920.

Patented Apr, '11, 1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l- INVENTOR 516W Q. flafili H. R. KEIT-HLEY.

7 .CAR WHEEL. I APPLICATUN FILED FEB-18. 1920- 1,412,617; Patented Apr. 11, 1922.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2- luvs/nan UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERBERT R. KEITHLEY, OF MICHIGAN CITY, INDIANA; HERBERT It. KEITHLEY, JR., ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ESTATE OF SAID HER-BERT R. KEITHL-EY, DECEASED.

CAR WI-IEEL.

Specification of Letters Patent. 7 Patented Apr. 11, 1922.

Application filed February 18, 1920. Serial No. 359,832.

T all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT R. KEITHLEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at 216 rlarl Road, Michigan Uity, in the county of Laporte and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Car Wheels, and of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to produce a car wheel in which the body portion, comprising the hub and web and a portion of the inner part of the rim, shall be made of low carbon soft-steel having the properties of strength and toughness and great resistance to stresses from shock and in which the wearing body of the rim and flange shall be made of an alloy'of hard steel which shall differ greatlyin metallic composition from that of the low carbon soft-steel forming the body portion and possess properties of intense hardness and great resistance to abrasion and Wear and to stresses from shock.

Afurther object of my invention is to provide new and improved processes and methods of manufacturing said car wheels, by which the soft steel body portion can be perfectly united to the hard steel wearing body of the rim and flange, so as to form one integral body of metal.

Further objects of my invention are to provide improved methods by which car wheels can be made from compound steel ingots, produced free from pipes and segregation by direct and simple operations of casting and forging by which greater economies of quantity production can be obtained than in the processes for which I received Letters Patent No. 1,073,350 issued September 16, 1913, and No. 1,1i9f267 issued August 10, 1915.

To this end my invention consists of a new and improved compound car wheel and in processes of manufacturing said car wheel, by producing a bowl consisting of a suitable alloy of hard steel to form the wearing body of the rim and flange and having its cubic contents approximately that of the cubic contents of the wheel to be formed, and having its walls of sufficient thickness to rigidly maintain their form when the bowl is filled with molten soft steel. The bowl being provided with a hot top such as is used for casting ingots for shells, is then completely filled with the low carbon soft steel, which is heated to a high temperature that will cause it to unite by fusion with the innerportion of the hard steel walls of the bowl, which is raised to a fusing temperature by its direct contact with the molten soft steel. By this method the compound ingot is formed with its body portion consisting of sound steel and with the pipe and segregate collected above the bowl in the neck of the hot top, forming a sink head which is nicked and broken off when the ingot becomes cold. The compound ingot is next placed in a reheating furnace and brought to a high temperature for forging, it is then removed from the furnace to the forging dies in which it is forged by hydraulic pressure into a finished car wheel in which the hard steel, of which the bowl consisted, forms the wearing body of the rim and flange and the soft steel with which the bowl is filled, forms the'hub and web and a portion of the inner part of the rim.

In carrying out this process, the ingot may be raised to a temperature in reheating that will insure the perfect union of the outer hard steel portion with the soft steel inner portion when the forging pressure is applied to the ingot by the dies in the first forging operation.

The hard steel which forms the bottom portion of the bowl is reduced in thickness as the diameter of the blank is increased by the forging operation until it is only about one fifth as thick on that side of the finished wheel which it forms. But the vertical side walls of the ingot are subjected to a combined upsetting and stretching action by the forging operation as the blank is both shortened in length and increased in diameter, so that thickness of the hard steel in the wearing body of the rim and flange of the finished wheel is approximately the same as the wall thickness of the original bowl.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating my invention in the several figures of which like parts are similarly designated, Figure 1 represents a sectional view of the bowl consisting of an alloy of hard steel. Fig. 1 is a top plan view of the same. Fig. 2 is a sectional view showing the cast steel ingot formed by filling the bowl, consisting of hard steel, with molten soft steel. Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the same. Fig. 3 is a. side elevation of the ingot showing the sink head removed, with the pipe and segregate and ready to be placed in a redie-forging-operation, according to my in-.

vention.

Referring to the drawings in detail, 7 is' the bowl comprised of a suitable hard steel alloy, preferably consisting of chrome vanadium steel of a suitable composition to form the wearing body of the tread and flange of the car Wheel. This bowl is now fillectwith molten metal having different physical. properties, such as soft steel, and at such temperature that unites integrally with the walls of the bowl, thus forming a compound ingot 8. A sink-head 81 is formed in which the pipe and segregate collects, as the ingot becomes solidified and cold as shown in Fig. 2. This sink-head is then notched around its base and broken off becoming a sound ingot 8 shown by Fig. 3 which is then placed in the reheating furnace where it is raised to a high temperature for forging at which stage it is shown by Fig. 1. In F 1g. 5 the compound ingot 8 is shown reduced by the initial forging operation to the form of a car wheel 9 having the hard steel flange 10 rim 11 and soft steel inner part 12, hub 13 and web 14, all forged into the rudimentary form of a car wheel. In Fig. 6 the car wheel is shown completely formed in the final forging operation with axle hole 15 partly formed and ready for boring.

I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. As an article of manufacture a car wheel having its body portion, consisting of one side of thehub, the web and inner portion of the rim, composed of low carbon soft steel and having the opposite side of the web and the wearing body of the rim and flange composed of hard steel of different metallic composition from that of the steel forming the body portion, said soft steel body portion and opposite hard steel side of theweb, rim and flange portion being united integrally in one body of metal.

2. As an article of manufacture a car wheel having its body portion, consisting of one side of the hub, the web and inner por tion of the rim, composed of low carbon soft and having the opposite side of the web and the wearingbody of the rim and flange composed of hard steel alloy, said soft steel body portion and opposite hard steel side of the web, rim and flange portion being united inone body of metal.

tegrally in HERBERT R. KEITHLEY. 

